Nature of Reading Theoretical Description

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3. Critical Reading and Writing

In order to see deeper about critical reading and writing, it is better to elaborate first the nature of reading and writing. The relation between these two skills is included in the Critical Reading and Writing 1 course, as it is intended in the scope of the English Language Education Study Program.

a. Nature of Reading

According to Nunan 2003, reading is a fluent process of readers combining information from a text and their own background knowledge to build meaning. The goal of reading is comprehension. It can be described as an active process — a dynamic, meaning-making interaction between the page and your brain. Understanding the reading process helps people become critical thinkers. In addition, Nunan also proposes that there are three models of the reading processes; bottom-up, top-down, and interactive models. The most typical classroom which focuses on bottom-up approach is intensive reading classroom, while top-down approach is usually used in extensive reading classroom. Focusing on the first model which is bottom-up models, Nunan 2003 describes the process of bottom up models: Bottom-models typically consist of lower-reading processes. Students start with the fundamental basics of letter and sound recognition, which in turn allows for morpheme recognition followed by word recognition, building up to the identification of grammatical structures, sentences, and longer texts. Letters, letter clusters, words, phrases, sentences, longer text, and finally meaning is the order in achieving comprehension. p. 70 23 In addition, he also describes the process of the second model which is top-down models: Top-down models, on the other hand, begin with the idea that comprehension resides in the reader. The readers use the background knowledge, makes prediction, and searches the text to confirm or reject the predictions that are made. A passage can thus be understood even if all of the individual words are not understood. Within a top-down approach to reading the teacher should focus on meaning generating activities rather than on mastery of word recognition. p. 71 In other words, bottom-up model is started from the small part of language that is letter. Bottom-up here also means decoding. It is where the readers build meaning from the smallest units of meaning to achieve comprehension. However, top- model is the direct opposition of bottom-up model. In top-down model, the readers employ their background knowledge to build meaning in order to achieve the comprehension. However, these two models are still inadequate in the process of reading in achieving comprehension. Despite these two models, there is another model accepted as the most comprehensive description in the reading process; interactive model. Interactive model combines the elements of bottom-up and top-down models. It includes aspects of intensive and extensive reading. It is where the teachers should provide the shorter passage in order to teach specific reading skills and strategies. Besides the teacher should encourage the students to read longer texts without emphasizing on testing their skills. The graphic of interactive models is pictured as follows. 24 Reader background knowledge Individual letters and sound Figure 2.2 The Graphic of Interactive Models Alderson 2000 notes that the process of reading and the product of that process as a result are different. The process is what is meant by ‘reading’ proper between the text and the reader where the reader also thinks about what he is reading, what it means, how he relates to things he know, etc. While product of the process itself is the result of the reading process, for example reader’s understanding of particular texts. Related to reader’s understanding above, there are two levels of understanding. First, literal understanding of a text, which means the readers understand every detail in the text. Second, the main implication understanding where the readers understand the meaning of a text which is indirectly stated in the text. Being able to read here simply means understand the words, meanings, sentences and the organization of the text which is related to the former to ‘micro Comprehension 25 processes’ which deals with the local phrase-by-phrase understanding and ‘macro processes’ which deals with global understanding Kintsch and van Dijk, 1978, as cited in Alderson, 2000.

b. Nature of Writing